Exploring the World of Bricklink – Part 2 – Wanted Lists

In the first article we covered how to access Bricklink, how to register for an account and how to search up parts/sets and pricing.

In Part 2 we are going to touch on Wanted Lists, what are they and how do they work?

Log in to www.bricklink.com with your account and click on the WANTED tab at the top of the page and you will see the following;

You will notice along the top you have option to ADD ITEMS (this page above), UPLOAD, PART SET etc along the green line. Under Manage My Wanted List: you also have the same options in the grey area of the page.

By clicking on the My Wanted List link you will be brought to an overview of wanted lists, like below;

**Your right hand side of the screen will look different as it will display the lists I have created.

At the bottom right you have the option to ADD NEW WANTED LIST. You can give it your own name in the empty box, it will create the list with that name and give it a WANTED LIST ID NUMBER when saved.

Now if you have never done a Wanted List in Bricklink, we will pause here to discuss some things that will hopefully save you some time down the track or at least give you some pointers to consider.

I have personally taken the approach of having a MASTER list, which is all the parts I want to buy, but then duplicating it to become a NEEDED list. For Example,

The reason I have taken this approach is as follows. Looking at 777538 above, this is the Master List I have created for all the parts I need to buy for some Fire trucks we are building. The list has 246 individual items, each having multiple quantities.

Consider for a moment that I don’t duplicate the list, as I buy each item and quantity, I have to somehow keep track of how many of each item I have bought, have I bought all 16 2×4 plates I need in black? Maybe I could only find 8 at one local seller and I need another 8?

I could use the remarks field on the wanted list and keep adding changes as I go. But when I try and search in store based on My Wanted List, this will probably bring up all the items still……so why not DUPLICATE the list and have what is still NEEDED?

The DUPLICATE list I created (which is 775184 Fire Needed above) started off with 246 items just like the MASTER list, as I went along and bought the items I needed, I either amended the quantities if there was only 8 plates available OR if there were 16 available I would delete the item (and hit SUBMIT CHANGES at the bottom) and suddenly there are only 245 items I still need to find and so on. Follow?

The benefit here is that you can search in bricklink stores for items on your wanted list and you can select a SPECIFIC wanted list to search by, only looking for items on that list (in this case the FIRE NEEDED list). The added benefit is when all your parts come in, you also have the original Fire MASTER list to check off that you have all of the parts you need for your build.

So when it comes time to create a new list, call it something meaningful as when you get 30 or more Wanted Lists it needs to be easy to find. If you have a set number you are trying to build, I would go for a name like “6970 Master” (using our original set searched for at the beginning of the article) and hit ADD NEW WANTED LIST. You will then see it appear in the list with a new number and the title you gave it.

Now you need to add itemsinto the wanted list, there are 3 ways you can do this;

Individually by searching a part and then add to wanted list (select wanted list name),

Part out set and add to wanted list or

Mass Upload via XML.

Adding of a part to a wanted list.

Search the part no at the top (eg 3020– 2×4 plate). Go to the COLOUR INFO tab and hit the colour you need. To the right of the picture of the part you will see Add to My Inventory , Add to My Wanted List and PriceGuide. Select ADD TO MY WANTED LIST and you will see the following;

If you have already created a Wanted List, use the drop down menu under Add to: and pick the name of the Wanted List, then at the bottom select Add Item. You can select VIEW ITEM IN MY WANTED LIST and add in the quantity that you require.

Parting Out a Set

Assuming you’re looking to buy all the parts to a single set, which might work out cheaper for rare sets, the easiest way to do it is to go to the “Want” tab, followed by “Part Set”

Enter your set number.

Either create a new Wanted list, or add to an existing list.

Check this option to automatically add the number of each part required for a complete set

I would strongly recommend using the MASTER and NEEDED list methods to keep on top of what parts you have bought and what you still need to buy.

Mass Upload via XML

This is a great option for a large quantity of parts, specifically from a model designed in Lego Digital Designer (LDD) or utilities programs such as BRICKSTOCK.

For LDD however, you will also need another intermediary program such as BRICKUTILSto generate your XML list.

In a nutshell, LDD produces a file when you make a model that saves with an .LXF extension. BRICKUTILSwill directly open the .LXF file and read all the parts you need. (It will also read an LDRAW project for those that use that design program. )

From BRICKUTILSyou can then EXPORT TO BRICKLINK MASS UPLOAD XML.

Best advice here is to make your Wanted List FIRST in Bricklink , then use BRICKUTILSto export the list and it will request the WANTED LIST 6 DIGIT number from when you created your list. Remember we had 777538 Fire Master list earlier?

In BRICKUTILSselect the second button to IMPORT BRICKS, then SELECT LDD PROJECT (LXF/LFXML).

Load up your Project and all the Bricks appear.

Then simply move to the next button EXPORT BRICKS, select BRICKLINK MASS UPLOAD (XML) and give the file a name you will remember (like FIREMASTER) .

You will then see BRICKLINK EXPORT OPTIONS appear, the main thing to look at here is your LIST ID – you can enter your number (eg 777538) and all the bricks will be exported to that Wanted List number in BRICKLINK. If you don’t enter a number it will go to your MAIN list.

If you want all NEW bricks, change the part condition here, or you can amend it in your Wanted List in Bricklink after. Now hit OK

You will need to wait a minute for the export, then you will see a confirmation.

To check your WANTED LIST, go to the Wanted List Page, use the drop down menu to select your particular list and then hit GO!

Select EDIT ONLY to show all your parts. Here you can change you change your quantities and condition of parts and enter remarks about each piece.

To duplicate this list and use the MASTER and NEEDED method;

create another WANTED LIST called XXXXX(your name) NEEDED.

Go back to the MASTER list once you have uploaded all the parts to it.

Select the MOVE option at the top that ticks all the items

Change the drop down at the bottom of the list to COPY(**THIS IS IMPORTANT**) and also select which list you want to move it to – in my case I have a FIRE MASTER and I want to copy everything to a FIRE NEEDED List

Then SUBMIT CHANGES. This will COPY all of your items to the other list. If you leave the option as MOVE, all your items will shift to the other list and leave you with nothing in your first list. Don’t worrry you can always just COPY them back the other way!

There you go, you have successfully exported an LDD design to Bricklink via XML Bulk Upload and made a duplicate of your list to start buying parts from.

Basically now you can go to search in a store and you have the option in the store to SEE ALL ITEMS ON MY WANTED LIST and you are able to select which list, DESELECT ALL then click on the list you want to check. This is where you would look at your NEEDED parts list to see what you still need to buy. Keep the MASTER list as is so you can check all the parts off when they come in.

Now some bizarre things can happen you need to be aware of. Say you need 10 of a particular block/tile etc. You put 10 in the quantity on your wanted list. When you do a SHOW ITEMS, it will ONLY show you the stores that have 10 in them. Fine you think? What happens if you want to shop local and save some postage and two local stores have 5 each? You would want to know about that option right? 2 local pickups at a slightly higher price per brick can work out cheaper than an interstate lot with postage included for a small parcel of $7 or more.

How can you get around this then? You can move the quantity you need into the REMARKS field, therefore removing a MINQTY from your search. This will ONLY happen in the main WANTED LIST, SHOW ITEMS search and not in an individual store and is currently how Bricklink is programmed to work. If you didn’t know about it and later on your are searching a local store and see 5 out of your 10 items you might feel a little hard done by that you couldn’t buy it before and you have now ordered that parcel. Something to keep in mind.

We will wrap this one up at this point. More than happy to hear about other approaches to wanted lists and comments or questions that you may have! Happy Bricklinking!

Based in Adelaide, South Australia, Custom Brick Builds designs Emergency Service Vehicles of all types for our clients. No job is too big or too small! Check out our page today for a sample of our work

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Ben Tomlins

Based in Adelaide, South Australia, Custom Brick Builds designs Emergency Service Vehicles of all types for our clients. No job is too big or too small! Check out our page today for a sample of our work